The WA Food Atlas is an interactive tool to assess the food environment across local government areas and how it changes over time.
Currently, the Food Atlas includes data for the Greater Perth Metropolitan area, comprising 32 LGAs, and plans are underway to expand it to include data for all 137 local government areas across WA.
It is a unique and innovative three-year project funded by Healthway and led by The Kids Research Institute Australia in partnership with the WA Local Government Association, The WA Department of Health, The City of Vincent, the East Metropolitan Health Service, the Australian Urban Design Research Centre, the Public Health Advocacy Institute, Cancer Council WA, The University of Western Australia, Curtin University and the University of Antwerp.
Who it is for and what it can be used for?
Designed around the needs of professionals in food policy, public health, environmental health and planning roles, the WA Food Atlas visualises and quantifies the presence and location of all food businesses across jurisdictional boundaries throughout WA.
Users of the WA Food Atlas will be able to:
- View the locations of all Food Service and Food Retail businesses by category type.
- View all available food environment indicators for selected time points and geographic areas e.g. Fast-food locations mapped within 500 m of schools.
- View maps that visually quantify the various food environment indicators, including the incorporation of other datasets indicating health and socioeconomic status.
- Compare and contrast food environment indicators for one Local
- Government against other local government areas and averages for the Greater Perth area.
What types of food outlets are included?
In accordance with the Food Act (WA 2008)34, all businesses that store, prepare, handle, serve and/or sell food are required to register with their Local Government. Currently there is no uniform approach to categorising food businesses. For example, a greengrocer might be classified as a “food retail store”, “fruit and vegetable shop” or “greengrocer”.
A fit-for-purpose, ‘Nutrition-Focused Food Business Classification Framework’ to standardise classifications across all food business types has been developed35. The framework has been designed to be nutrition-focused and comprehensive, with the ability to expand or collapse classifications depending on the level of detail required.
There is also the ability to add additional classifications, categories, and sub-categories to the framework as they arise. Presently, the framework has six main classifications (Food Retail; Food Service; Charitable Food Provision; Food Production and preparation; Institutional Food; and Accommodation/Recreation Services), 41 categories and 106 sub-categories.
Each main classification contains a range of categories, and certain categories have a sub-category. The six broad classifications and the accompanying categories are as follows:
| Food business classification | Number of categories | Name of categories |
| Food Retail | 15 | Supermarket/grocery store, convenience store, world/ethnic food store, health food store, butcher/poultry store, fishmonger, bakery, fruit and vegetable store/greengrocer, delicatessen, cake/pastry/patisserie, confectionery/chocolate/ice-cream, other specialist food outlet, liquor merchant/bottleshop, general retail, mobile food retail/farmers market |
| Food Service | 5 | Café/coffee shop, restaurant, fast-food, licensed liquor venue, mobile food/drink van |
| Charitable food provision | 3 | Emergency food provision groceries and meals, meal preparation and delivery |
| Food production & preparation | 5 | Catering kitchen, mobile food/drink operator, meal/grocery delivery service, food manufacturer/processor, producer/packer/distributor |
| Institutional food | 10 | Hospitals, residential care, defence, workplace, education, childcare, correctional, community/church/hall/function centre, residential worksite, other institutional |
| Accommodation/recreation services | 3 | Entertainment venue, health and leisure venue, accommodation with food |
What information does the WA Food Atlas include?
The food environment indicators within the WA Food Atlas are variables or metrics that provide information about the physical food environment (i.e., geographical access and availability to food businesses). Indicators were constructed from component data sources (i.e., food businesses, population data, geographical boundaries, residential dwellings, road networks).
All geographical data sets used to create the food environment indicators and maps within the WA Food Atlas are presented in the Geocentric Datum of Australia 2020 (GDA2020), projection Map Grid of Australia 2020 (MGA2020).
The indictors selected were based on those applied within existing food mapping tools and within literature appraising food environment measures31, 42-44. For selected indicators, an average was calculated for the Greater Perth area (average of all 32 Local Government areas).
Population data from the 2016 census were used to calculate the 2018/2019 indicators and the 2021 population census data were used to calculate the 2022 indicators.
The following information is shown in the Food Atlas:
Counts - A numerical count of each food business classification and category type located within each Local Government area.
Indictors - Four indicators were selected for the initial iteration of the Food Atlas and were calculated in relation to fast casual/quick service/takeaway (fast-food).
- Fast-Food Density per 10,000 population: The number of fast-food outlets located within each Local Government area, divided by the total population for that Local Government area x 10,000.
- Fast-Food Access within 800m: The number and percent of households located within 800m from fast-food outlets within each Local Government area.
- Fast-food % of Food Service: The number of fast-food locations divided by the total number of food service businesses within each Local Government area.
- Top 4 “Fast-Food” businesses (McDonald’s, KFC, Hungry Jack’s & Domino’s Pizza)45 density per 10,000 population: The number of the top 4 fast-food outlets located within each Local Government area, divided by the total population for that Local Government area x 10,000.
The definition of fast-food is a food service venue selling pre-prepared food, meals and beverages to customers that are consumed on the premises or immediately. Includes a quick service or fast-food outlet with seating and may provide takeaway and/or drive-through and includes kiosks. Food is ordered at the counter and served immediately. Food that can be eaten immediately without cutlery. There are some exceptions, such as Domino’s outlets that only offer a takeaway option with only a waiting area (no seating to eat at the premises).
For the future iterations of the Food Atlas these indicators, together with additional indicators, can be calculated in relation to any other food business classifications or category types.
Using the map layers and views
The Food Atlas includes the functionality to display various profiles such as:
- Map of schools showing fast-foods within 500m: The number of fast-food locations within 500m of schools within each Local Government area.
- Fast-food locations by SES: Heat map of all suburbs within each Local Government area showing IRSD decile and locations of fast-food locations.
How to cite the WA Food Atlas
Anytime data or information is used from the WA Food Atlas, it must be cited as follows:
Bivoltsis A, Hooper P, Klug F, Thornton L, Pollard C, Pulker C, Cooper M, McStay C, Sartori A, Simonetti J, Trapp G,. 2023. The WA Food Atlas. The Kids Research Institute Australia, Perth Western Australia.